Fortney: Calgary seizes opportunity to talk about mental health

Dorothy Phillips, 84, left, and Marie Bredo, 87, enjoy the music of music therapist Sara Pun, right, plays at the National Music Centre in Calgary, on Wednesday January 31, 2018, during their event exploring the healing power of music. Leah Hennel/Postmedia

She grew up in a musical household, her late dad, who once played in the Calgary Stampede Showband, making sure his entire family shared in the love of sound and movement.

So for anyone who knows Dorothy Phillips, seeing her on Wednesday morning holding court at the National Music Centre wouldn’t be surprising in the least.

“Music is her life,” says her daughter Cheryl Phillips, while her mom, a resident of the Brentwood Care Centre, shakes a maraca and dances around the room while music therapist Sara Pun plays the guitar.

“It’s so powerful for her, for anyone, really,” says Phillips, who accompanies her mother and her facility’s dementia group’s field trip to the iconic new building. “You see people who don’t speak and when they recognize the music, start to sing along.”

All throughout the centre on this day, people are echoing Phillips’ firm belief in the healing power of music for mental health and well-being. Displays and booths from various social agencies are set up on the main floor, while featured speakers focus on subjects like music’s relationship to human emotions.

It’s just one venue in the city, though, that is participating in the Bell Let’s Talk Day (bell.ca/letstalk), an annual event sponsored by Bell Canada and now in its eighth year. Along with promoting awareness and understanding of mental health — and reducing the stigma experienced by so many facing mental health issues — it’s also well on its way to raising $100 million by 2020 for organizations across the country that help individuals, families and the community at large.

It’s not hard to find local fans of the January campaign, especially when you talk to those on the front lines working to erase the stigma and provide immediate and effective help to those dealing with mental health issues.

“It has supported two grants for us,” says Laureen MacNeil, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association/Calgary (cmha.calgary.ab.ca). “Both of them have gone to building our school of peer support.”

Along with the much-needed financial aid, MacNeil says the day — which encourages people to talk about mental health via Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and other social media — plays a vital role in promoting a much-needed dialogue throughout the greater society.

“And it continues to grow,” she says, “with everyone engaging in this issue of reducing stigma.”

In the year 2018, MacNeil says she’s more encouraged than ever, thanks to another key improvement: the increasing use of the internet and social media to connect people with help.

“One of the things we’re really proud of is our website, where people can find a ton of information,” says MacNeil, whose organization’s peer support line is manned by a team of 40 trained volunteers who have had their own mental health journeys. “We also include story after story of people who have lived with mental health or addiction issues.”

At the Calgary Distress Centre (distresscentre.com), there was a nearly nine per cent increase last year when it came to crisis contacts, with trained volunteers and staff responding to more than 87,000 requests. While some might not see such an increase as good news, Jerilyn Dressler has a much more positive take. “We think it is because people are more willing to reach out to us,” says Dressler, the centre’s executive director.

She credits the harnessing of newer technologies, which in recent years have been more often maligned for creating social isolation.

“A lot of people find it a less scary way to reach out,” she says, noting that while younger people make up a large portion of those using such methods, it’s also more comfortable to many people years and decades older.

“You can think about what you say before you type it,” says Dressler, who notes her organization’s participation in the Calgary Herald Christmas Fund in 2016 helped significantly with its online expansion. “I think all these improvements are really helping us move the needle, getting the word out and connecting people.”

For people like Cheryl Phillips, helping her mother have good experiences out in the community is certainly about promoting her mental health.

There is, however, another equally important reason for their participation on this day at the National Music Centre.

“I want to make sure she still has fun,” she says with a smile as her mother Dorothy once again makes her way to the dance floor, “and enjoys life.”

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